My thoughts on things. Particularly philosophy, alternate histories, and the current state of the world.
Disclaimer: The topics and theories discussed here do not necessarily reflect my point of view. I just find them to be interesting and worth consideration.

Friday, December 28, 2007

I was told before by a friend of mine that we are Everything and Nothing. All is Everything and Nothing together. I finally understood what this meant last night when I was attempting to explain this concept to someone else.

The Absolute, or the world that we live in, what we perceive, is beyond human comprehension. It is fundamentally All and Nothing at the same time. This is due to the principle of Duality. All things are two in nature, opposites. Without one, the opposite cannot exist, and when one comes into existence, the other must too. For example, when the concept of car comes into existence, the concept of not-car simultaneously comes into existence. When light came into existence, it also created darkness. In fact, even the Absolute, being the Everything and the Nothing, is in itself a Duality. This principle is most profound in the process of creating matter. Whenever matter is created, anti-matter is created along with it, in the same amount. Basically, anti-matter is the same as matter, except it has the opposite properties of its matter counterpart. When anti-matter comes into contact with matter, they 'annihilate' or form Nothing, aka cease to exist.

This is why reality is both Everything and Nothing. It all cancels out. We all spawned from Nothing. Everything spawned out of Nothing, and yet it is also still equivalent to Nothing. Imagine Nothing as pure vast emptiness. Non-existence. Space. It is perfect. It is infinitely vast, and infinitely small. It neither grows nor decays, because all things grow out of Nothing and decay back into Nothing. The ancients, knowing that the Absolute is incomprehensible, represented this concept with a dot in the center of a blank slate or paper, to represent the closest to the Absolute that we can comprehend; the First that was not Nothing: Spirit. This Dot is of the same nature as the Hebrew Yod. However, it still destroys the perfection of the Absolute as it is no longer Nothing. It is no longer perfect. The Spirit is the seed of everything. In essence, the Spirit spawns from Nothing, and so does the Substance, but neither can exist without the other, canceling each other out to equal the Nothing. The Substance, or Material-self is the material manifestation of the Spirit. The Material-self is created in and interacts with the world of Substance. The Spirit-self is the inner-self that heavily influences the Material-self and I am starting to believe that depression and mental problems stem from the Material-self's rejection of it's Spirit counterpart (or rejection of the Truth). The Spirit is the true self, as close to the Universal Self as possible. It manifests itself whenever we dream or hallucinate and I believe the reason dreams and hallucinations can become scary is because our Spirit-self may manifest a part of itself that our Material-self is not willing to accept. For example, a dream about dying is scary because your Material-self cannot accept what your Spirit-self already knows: we will all die someday.

Before anything (not just people) manifest in the physical realm, their Spirit comes into existence first, and throughout the ages, the Spirit has come to be known as God, the creator. And we've all heard the saying that God is within everything. This is true, as God is the Spirit, the first that was not Nothing, in everything. Before there was table, there was the Spirit of table (concept of table). Your spirit is the concept of you. When you discover you like a certain subject, it is only your Material-self making this discovery; your Spirit-self is already predisposed to like that subject. The opposite of this example would be someone who works in a cubicle and hates it. They may not know it but the reason they hate working in a cubicle is due to a disharmony between the Material and the Spirit-self because their Spirit-self is predisposed to hate working in a cubicle. Therefore to "know God" (and find peace) is to know your Spirit-self.

This is best exemplified in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Vedanism as the goal is to understand the Spirit-self (god) and return it back to the Nothing, or the Universal Self, or Brahman, Nirvana, Enlightenment, etc. "I am the dewdrop returning to the Sea." To become Nothing again, I believe, requires one to completely understand their Spirit-self and make their Material-self One with their Spirit-self, canceling each other out to form Nothing; pure inner peace.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Most people today believe the ancients to be dumb and backwards, but this is hardly the case. Relics of ancient ingenuity exists still today and baffle modern all-knowing all-powerful scientists, who can only come up with theories as to how such monuments were constructed and why, but what's worse is that they attempt to force their conclusions to fit their worldview. Stonehenge is one example, but specifically, to argue for the existence of a single very early advanced civilization from which all Western culture evolved, we will examine the Pyramids at Giza.

It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one still intact and standing today. It is also the most famous, as most have never even heard of the lesser known ones, such as the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Even more intriguing is the sphinx which seems to guard it, staring off into the horizon. Here is a picture:

First off, notice the weathering on the sphinx (click to enlarge). There is an obvious difference in the weathering pattern of the head of the sphinx as compared to its body. Also notice the size of its head compared to the size of its body. Could the architects of the Pyramids, who calculated the weight and proportions of the pyramids so perfectly, drastically miscalculated the proportions of the sphinx head compared to its lion body? Before we get into that, let us examine the Sphinx further. It stares off into the horizon, but at what? It looks directly at the precise location of the sunrise during the Vernal Equinox, the official first day of the new year, astrologically speaking, and again, is a testament to perfect calculations.

So back to its erosion pattern. It's head is obviously newer than the rest of its body, as the body suffers from a great amount of textbook water erosion, as do the Pyramids themselves, and the heavy rains that are needed to cause this erosion have not fallen upon the land of Egypt since the 3rd millennium BC, and must have been exposed to at least a couple thousand years of recurring heavy rainfall to have been afflicted with such erosion. However, the head shows no sign of such erosion, although it was the only part of the sphinx to have been visible since the ancient times, and was only fully unearthed in 1905.

1858

The fact that the head is disproportional to its body is also another clue, and has led some to believe that the Sphinx, with the body of a lion, to also at one time to have had a lion's head as well, which was later modified by the Egyptians. I will explain why in a second.

So what about the Pyramids? Notice their positioning. It is a perfect replica of the constellation Orion's Belt, to the degree. The Nile River represents the relative location of the Milky Way to Orion's Belt. However, this does not quite match up... yet. We have to go back in time, to the Age of Leo (about 12000 years ago), when the three stars of Orion's Belt would have aligned perfectly to it's Earthly representation, the Pyramids, starting after the Winter Solstice until the Vernal Equinox, during which they are all perfectly aligned. This is where the lion's head comes in. The Sphinx, which stares at the precise location of the sunrise during the Vernal Equinox would have been staring at the constellation Leo during the Age of Leo, which is represented by the Lion!

Now, it is a stretch to say that the Pyramids were built by literal Atlanteans,as I remember seeing a History Channel presentation on why it is stupid to think the Pyramids are older than the accepted age. They chose some old lunatic to represent the unconventional theory and just discredits him in a completely biased way, which has made me wonder, why is such an idea so discouraged? What is there to hide? Well, I don't know, but anyway, I will continue. The Pyramids, I believe, were built by an advanced ancient civilization existing anytime between 12,000 BC to 9,000 BC, and that all western culture came from the culture of this civilization.

I am not claiming that this civilization was Atlantis, but I do believe that the writings on Atlantis were a symbolic metaphor of this great civilization, and that the flood stories of the western cultures were also referring to the destruction of this Utopian society... or should I say Dystopian. I don't believe that it literally sank into the sea, but was more likely swallowed by its own civil strife or perhaps an unusually disastrous flooding of the Nile (which might also help explain the water erosion). To further fit the time frame,

"According to Critias, 9,000 years before his lifetime a war took place between those outside the Pillars of Hercules (generally thought to be the Strait of Gibraltar) and those who dwelt within them. The Atlanteans had conquered the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt and the European continent as far as Tyrrhenia, and subjected its people to slavery. The Athenians led an alliance of resistors against the Atlantean empire and as the alliance disintegrated, prevailed alone against the empire, liberating the occupied lands." -Wikipedia

Although Wiki is not the best source, this is pretty accurate and that 9,000 years before the time of Plato was about 9500 BC. He also mentions that Egypt was one of the places conquered, which again seems to fit into the puzzle. In fact, according to Plato, knowledge of Atlantis was brought to Greece by Solon, from guess where? Egypt! So it seems that Egypt has a strong tie to the original "Atlanteans". It is also worthy of note that Plato described Atlantis as a connector between multiple civilizations that was easily traversed, until it sank, of course. This is also similar to Egypt as before it descended into desert, it would have been very easy and nice to travel through. But of course, this is just my speculation on this subject and I hope you will give it some thought too, and let me know what you think, positively or negatively, just make sure you back it up!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Here is my theory of the religions, the Precession of the Ages, and the Book of Revelation. Please read the whole thing, as I make my point in the end. Some of this you may or may not agree with, but I will attempt to present it as objectively as possible. The first portion is similar to the information divulged in the first part of Zeitgeist (which I carefully verified) as well as research of my own, and I will make conclusions based upon this information.

First of all, I hold that the "church" of the pagan Christ was never meant to be an actual establishment to rule over the people's minds of the World, but rather an intellectual congregation to encourage the facilities of reason while paying tribute to that which gave us life, the Sun. The Sun is what makes wine, and if you ever watch a sunrise over a lake or ocean, or any body of water, you will notice its reflection "walk" across the body of water, illuminating the world.

To explain my theory, one must be somewhat versed in Astrology, which I will explain hereafter. Astrology is the most ancient of all "sciences", although it is not a "science" in the way we define the term today. It governed the lives of all through the calendars, and was able to be used to predict astrological events. To study the celestial bodies was to study the cycle of the universe.

There are 12 signs of the zodiac (though some believe there were originally only 10), which is a band of fixed stars in the night sky. Due to the rotation and revolution of the Earth, our view of this band of fixed stars changes, and thus, it seems as if the sun travels through each of these signs (which are equally divided) throughout the year, only to return to the same spot at the end of the year. However, this is not completely true. The Sun is slightly off every year, and thus, every 2150 years, the Sun DIGRESSES through an entire sign. I use Digress and Precession because the Sun moves backwards, rather than its normal yearly cycle. Anyway. We are currently in the age of Pisces, the fish, which starts roughly 1 AD and will end roughly 2150 AD. There is much importance to this.

Jesus's supposed birth is roughly 1 AD, of a Virgin. Though his birthday is celebrated on the 25th of December, it is often noted that his birthday is much more likely March 21st. The number 12 is replete through the text. The 12 disciples are obvious allusions to the 12 constellations. Jesus becomes a child teacher at age 12. He is then baptized at 30 by John the Baptist. Later, he is crucified, died for three days, and resurrected. He is often referred to as "the fish", and his first disciples were fishermen, and he performed many miracles such as walking on water, healing the sick, raising the dead, turning water into wine, and is often referred to as the Alpha and Omega, the Light of the World, etc.

Now, to say that these characteristics are unique to Christianity would be a complete and utter ignorance of facts. See Dionysus, Attis, Horus, Mithra, Balder the Beautiful, etc..

However, remember, when you look up those deities, it is necessary to keep in mind that there are multiple versions of each, but it doesn't matter because they still predate Christianity. Look for the Horus who was born of Isis, and to prove her virginity, it was famously inscribed upon her temple in her city "I, Isis, am all that was, and all that will be; no man hath ever me unveiled."

So why all these similar characteristics?

This is because these are all characters used for the personification of the ultimate deity, the supreme ruler of our Earth, and without which we are doomed: the Sun, literally, the Light of the World!

Coincidentally, 1 AD marks the beginning of the Age of Pisces, the Fish, and the end of the Age of Aries, the Ram. Anyway, let us first explain the astrological importance of the Nativity Story.

So when Jesus was born, Three Kings follow the Star in the East to locate baby Jesus and adorn him with gifts and such. Interestingly enough, on Dec. 24th, the Orion's Belt Constellation, often known as the "Three Kings", align with Sirius, the brightest Star in the East. If connected, it makes a straight line to the location in which the Sun will rise the next day, the 25th. So the Three Kings "follow" the Star in the East to the birth of the new baby Sun, as the lengthening and the shortening of the days and "dying" for three days represented the life cycle of the Sun. But why is the 25th important?

It is important to note that the Winter Solstice, or the shortest day of the year, occurs roughly on Dec 21st. Throughout December, the Sun rises to a lower and lower point until it reaches its lowest point on the day of the Winter Solstice. Then, something strange happens. The Sun had been constantly moving lower and lower since the Summer Solstice, but on the 22nd, it rises to approximately the same point it was at the 21st. This is the same for the 23rd and the 24th. It is the 25th that the Sun rises visibly higher than where it was since the 21st (it's death). During this time, the Sun occupies the vicinity of the Crux constellation, which is why Jesus (the Sun) died for three days, and was resurrected thereafter. You can argue that Jesus did not die for three whole days, but rather about two and a half, but it is really an argument of semantics. Easter, the day which we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus (the Sun), is the Spring Equinox, which represents the Sun's (light) official victory over darkness as after this, the duration of day exceeds the duration of the night (which is the opposite of the Fall Equinox, in which the days to follow have more night than day).

Being born of a Virgin is also symbolic. Virgo, the Virgin, represents roughly the middle of the month of August to mid-September, the time of Harvest, of which human life is sustained by. Therefore it was not a leap to relate our dependence on the time in which the Sun occupies this sign with the origin of the Sun itself. The symbol for Virgo is a Virgin holding Wheat, and it is referred to as the House of Bread. Coincidentally, Bethlehem in Hebrew means "House of Bread".

Even the Crown of Thorns is important, as it represents the rays of the sun. In all ancient symbolic art of the Sun, it is never depicted as a sphere by itself and is sometimes adorned with seven sun rays around its circumference that are triangular in nature (but always with rays), therefore a "crown of thorns".

Jesus is the symbolic representation of the Sun as it occupies the House of Pisces*. An excellent example of him divulging his symbolism with the sun is such:

Luke 22:7-10 (NIV)7Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover."

9"Where do you want us to prepare for it?" they asked.

10He replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters,

Basically, what is going on in this point is the disciples ask of Jesus, where they will have passover, and Jesus's reply is Luke 22:10. It is of GREAT significance because symbolically, as this is the Last Supper, the end of Jesus, or when the Age of Pisces ends, and Jesus's reply is astrologically critical. He tells them to follow "a man carrying a jar of water" and to "follow him to the house that he enters". The man carrying a jar (pitcher) of water, is obviously Aquarius, the water bearer, and also the Age which will begin after the Age of Pisces ends (around 2150 AD), and what Jesus is basically saying after his Age of Pisces is over, simply follow the Sun into the next age, Aquarius, which is always pictured as a man pouring out a pitcher/jar of water, and the word House has always been used to determine the Solar House in which the Sun occupies.

Prior to the Age of Pisces was the Age of Aries, the ram. This is why there is much ram symbolism in Judaic culture. In fact, when Moses descends from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments, he is angered when he sees the people worshiping a golden bull calf. Most biblical scholars attribute this anger to False Idol worship, but it is in fact that Moses is the representation of the new Age of Aries, and the end of the previous Age of Taurus, the bull. Thus it was said before this time, "the Celestial Bull cracking open the egg of the year", and prior to Moses, Mithra (no 's', Mithras is a different deity) was the representation of the Age of Taurus.

Anyway, that's been established, basically I believe all of this line of religion has its roots in astrology, but I believe astrology to hold a divine truth. Notice there was an * after I said "Jesus is the symbolic representation of the Sun as it occupies the House of Pisces". I will explain this. This is because there are two forms of Astrology, as with all great knowledge, exoteric and esoteric. Essentially, the difference between the two is that the exoteric tradition of astrology is geocentric while the esoteric tradition is heliocentric. When one says that the Sun is in the House of _______, they actually mean that the Sun's literal position is that opposite of _______, to symbolize the Sun's rays of light shining across the heavens, illuminating Earth, which is what is literally in the House of ______. In esoteric astrology, when one says the Sun is in the House of ______, they literally mean that. It is in this logic, that exoteric astrology is to solve and predict Earthly affairs, and the esoteric astrology for Heavenly affairs. Knowledge of esoteric astrology has always been kept secret (by definition of esoteric), and it's tenets are thought to be lost. Personally, I believe that in the beginning of each Age, the keepers of the secrets of the esoteric will make a prediction of the events at the end of the Age (book of Revelations). This explains why the first part of the Bible (Age of Taurus) foreshadows the the coming of Moses (Age of Aries), which after that foreshadows the Age of Pisces, which in turn, foreshadow a fourth Age, which is soon to be upon us. I've noticed a few similarities between the Book of Revelation and our times right now, and I feel that if I delved deeper, more similarities will be found. I've also come to the conclusion that at the beginning of each Age, a prophecy is made in regard to the condition of the world at the end of the Age. This is either predicted by one who is extremely adept in esoteric astrology or a prophet is literally born into the world. I believe the final judgment it refers to does not mean we will be literally judged by a heavenly power, but we as a species will be judged, or tested, and this final test of the Age is what is facing us. Will we lose the way of the light (reason, as it is why those who have attained higher reasoning are called "enLIGHTened", or "ilLUMINATEd", and so on) and succumb to this New World Order, or will we follow the light (reason) and revolt! Do not accept the "mark of the beast" (verichip) though all without it will not be able to participate in general society (as with verichip).

It is in the Book of Revelation that warns:"I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and they art not, but are a synagogue of Satan."

I think this is referring to the International Banker Conspiracy of today. Most of the shares of the major central banks, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, etc, are owned by Jewish bankers. This verse strikes me extremely profoundly in this portion: "the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and art not". Notice the lingual relationship between "Israel" and "All Jews". Basically anything you say against Israel and its policies, no matter how legitimate, could be called anti-semitic and you will lose all credibility. Experts would quickly dismiss the theory of an international Jewish banker conspiracy as anti-semitic mumbo-jumbo, and the Holocaust is used now as a tool to inspire sympathy towards the Jews. With the continents of the world unionizing, putting focus on bigger and more central central banks, and the people are conditioned to become more and more ignorant, the Book of Revelation is coming true. I believe Satan to represent the opposite of reason, or rather, IGNORANCE, and that in the next 100 years or so, either a new prediction will be made, or a prophet is literally born. But I feel that we do have control over our destiny, and we must do something about it. It is in our hands to decide whether to enter the Age of Aquarius as free men or as slaves.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Throughout human history, people strove to determine truth. In the ancient times, REASON was the prevalent method of determining truth. This worked out fine and much was accomplished. In fact, many profound truths were discovered in this way, and the ancients formed secret societies known as the Mysteries to protect them. Focus for the masses at this time was enjoying life and obtaining wisdom. To obtain the Mystery truths one must be initiated and then pass through a series of tests of the individual's qualities, and once initiated, one can then begin to learn. However, although the existence of these Mysteries is known, their truths are mostly lost.

The creation of the Roman Catholic Church marked a shift in human history. Focus for the masses changed from enjoying life and obtaining wisdom to merely enjoying life, for the Church was truth. After the fall of Rome, the Roman Catholic Church had a stranglehold on Europe. It is during this time, the prevalent method of determining truth was FAITH. During this time, whatever the Church says is considered true, and the focus for the masses changed from enjoying life to staying alive, and getting into heaven. The only way to go to Heaven after you die is if the Church lets you. Passes to Heaven is bought from the Church. However, most people, who were either serfs of peasants, could not afford to buy their way into Heaven, so they would have to work on the Church's land for no pay in order to get into Heaven. So of course, every good faithful peasant did. Then, at the end of the year, the peasants would have to pay a tax to the Church, even though they worked for them for free! Since they usually did not have a lot of money, they would have to pay the church with grain. The granaries of the Church would be full year round and much of it would be spoiled by rats and mold, while the peasants were working hard and barely had any food to eat. Little was accomplished during this time, as the only way to learn was through the Church. Incidentally, the Arabic world flourished, spiritually and intellectually. In fact, almost all the European alchemists had learned their trade from Arabic Mysteries. Not much would happen until the renaissances, to which the Church was outraged, as emphasis in art became the people rather than God. Then, again, there was stagnation in social and intellectual reform. Until Martin Luther, and there was reform, and there were less restrictions. Coincidentally, the Age of REASON beings about a hundred years later (16th Century), to which follows the Age of Enlightenment (17th Century). It is in the Age of Enlightenment that SCIENCE is discovered.

SCIENCE is a way of determining truth defined as truth through experimentation. Essentially, according to SCIENCE, something is true if repeated experiments are observed. Through this method, much as been accomplished... in the physical realm. People began to understand the physical world around them. Life expectancy increased. Industry revolutionized. Things became more convenient and entertaining. Focus for the masses began to shift from staying alive to enjoying life but still get into Heaven. The latter is slowly fading as the Churches grip on the population slowly crumbles. However, SCIENCE is flawed. It can only determine truth in the Physical. It can only determine truth about an observable phenomenon. But with SCIENCE came Technology.

Technology has made it so easy to look up information that there is no reason to think or have to do work. We are now lazy slaves to an economic system where our daily routines alternate from work and play. We are always bombarded with entertainment (and with it, propaganda), as technology has made it possible to reach millions (if not billions) of people at once. It almost seems as there is something missing from our lives. It's because there is. REASON. There is no emphasis on REASON anymore! Why is that? Why is it that people aren't encouraged to exercise REASONING? Even though we are escaping from the mind-slavery of the Church, we are in essence just switching masters! Only REASON can determine truths about the Physical AND the Metaphysical. Perhaps one day, through use of REASON we may discover a method of determining Metaphysical truths with SCIENCE-like efficiency. But first we must shift the focus of the masses from enjoying life to enjoying life and seeking wisdom! Only then will we be truly free.

Friday, December 7, 2007

So I recently watched Zeitgeist The Movie (the one on google video, or their website where you can find the sources), and I think it brought up a lot of really good points. First of all, to all those that question the validity of its statements, especially in the first part, I assure you it is true. One of the sources he cited, namely Manly P. Hall's Secret Teachings of All Ages (a very credible book), I have read before, and the information in the video is true to the facts. The information in the second and third parts are completely "googlable". You can also find a comparative chart between Jesus and Horus here:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm

And I know there's this website that claims such things as Attis was never resurrected and such. Here's a link to information refuting this claim:

http://www.bartleby.com/196/81.html

Anyway, the point the video makes is very good. It's not something to just accept blindly as truth because then you are making the same mistake. It's a video, I think, designed to stimulate the minds of the masses into thinking more. Less and less emphasis is being placed on philosophy and reason and more and more emphasis is placed upon the material. Before I can get to my next point, I must first define "bullshit", and I will use Harry Frankfurt's definition from On Bullshit.

To define "bullshit", Frankfurt first defines the difference between lying and bullshitting. When one lies, one consciously knows the truth, but deliberately conveys something different. However, when one is bullshitting, one has no concern for whether or not a statement or action is true, and is only for the betterment of themselves in front of others. Using this definition, you can say that our society is being conditioned into a life of pure bullshit. We are taught to go out and buy bullshit so that we can show it off, such as flashy cars, expensive clothes, or basically anything that we can get to make ourselves better than someone else. And these items have no concern for the truth for this reason: these material things have nothing to do with the true nature of the person. For example, someone driving an expensive dope car and dresses in expensive good looking clothing can be, and usually is, a total douchebag. This does not only apply to personal accessories. This also includes entertainment items we buy to occupy our minds with utter bullshit. Basically, we are conditioned to thrive in apathy.

Over the past couple hundred years, less and less emphasis is placed on philosophy. Philosophy now is often ridiculed and described as an outdated science that leads nowhere but a bunch of men asking "why?". But they are wrong. Reason is the single most important thing ever to grace humanity. But if this was true, why is it that nobody seems to know how to use it anymore? Why is it that everyone is so caught up in the material and can't seem to see that there is much more to this world than what appears? You've heard the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover", why shouldn't you apply this to reality? Why must we judge it as it is? The answer is that we shouldn't. This is where reason comes in. Unlike science, another method of determining truth, reasoning can determine truths in both the physical world and the metaphysical. Now I'm not saying science is a bad method, but instead I'm saying that while science is efficient in finding physical truths, it cannot determine anything we cannot observe. This is because the scientific method involves repeated experimentations and observations of those experiments, and truth is determined by repeated results. However, one cannot observe unobservable things such as concepts and ideas. This is where reason prevails. Only reason can tackle such questions as where we're coming from, where we're going, and why we're here.

The great thing about reason is that it requires no laboratory or facility, no government funding; it has no limitations and it cannot be observed. It is the gift of humanity but people are encouraged to not use it. People are encouraged to go out and buy bullshit to display social class, get married, have 1.4 kids, buy a two story house in the suburbs, put up a white picket fence, and live the remainder of their days in a vicious cycle of work and entertainment, or at least until retirement. But this is not how we humans are meant to live! These are only the most primal of our instincts! Most primates want social class and acceptance, a mate, offspring, territory, and so on. What separates us humans from the rest of the animal kingdom is that we have the ability to reason and create! Therefore, reasoning and creating are the only truly human experiences. However, I'm not saying that one shouldn't want to have a family and be financially secure and so on. What I'm saying is that those goals should not be the all-important. So from now on, PLEASE have an open mind. Accept that nothing is impossible and keep in mind that there is much more to this world than you can perceive. And the only way to discover the imperceivable half of this world is through reasoning, and to discover and understand this world is the purpose of humanity, as we are the only animal (that we know of) that has the ability to do so. So please, don't let reasoning and critical thinking die, and ponder the bigger questions out there. And also apply reasoning to your everyday life by critically analyzing all things passed on to you as "truth". Sorry I don't mean to sound like a preachy douchebag but this is something that I feel strongly about.